By Karen Poh
LOW-income earners looking for accommodation in Brimbank have been hit hard by the housing shortage.
This message came over loud and clear as representatives from The Salvation Army, the Homeless People’s Association and Centrelink gathered at a community lunch hosted by the Brimbank Emergency Relief Network in Sunshine last Wednesday to mark International Poverty Day.
Client services manager Belinda Tribe from The Salvation Army Social Housing and Support Network (SASHS) in the West said many of the Army’s clients had had little success in a tight rental market.
“The issues that are faced by Brimbank clients is that Brimbank is probably still one of the cheapest places to try to get into private rental.
“So you’ve got people from numerous municipalities … trying to access that limited amount of housing.”
Some have been knocked back as many as 20 times before a successful application, she said.
In August last year, SASHS provided financial assistance to 51 households to enter the private rental market But only 22 households requested assistance to enter the private rental market at the same time this year.
In addition, the number of households requiring crisis accommodation – households who had no accommodation for the night – more than doubled from 22 to 58.
“To further add to this, public housing is now almost not an option for people… with the general wait turn waiting time being indefinite and the early housing waiting time being anywhere from six months to three years,” Ms Tribe said.
Founding member and spokesperson for the Homeless People’s Association Anne Gosley called on more action from local, State and Federal governments.
She addressed the crowd of about 50 people at the community lunch.
“Anti-poverty, we know what it’s like to be poor.
“We’re poor in stability in our housing, in our lives, what our needs are. Rents go up but our payments don’t.
“We survive, we really do need to survive.
“With public housing … you pay the rent but you don’t get the maintenance, you don’t get the accessibility to be able to travel.
“What they pull down, they’re not putting back.
“You go to south Kensington and there are places over there that they’ve pulled down and said they would re-do. But they haven’t.
“And these private landlords are charging something like $160 for a little room where you can put a little bed in and a wardrobe if you’re lucky.
“Bathrooms are a disgrace, the kitchens are a disgrace, the rooms are a disgrace … and they won’t let them have visitors.
“Don’t you think it’s about time that all the lovely bureaucrats and pollies got their heads out of the sand, put their hands into their pockets and come to people who actually need the help and say, ‘How can I help you?’ ” Ms Gosley said.
Centrelink account manager Greg Telley encouraged feedback from the community.
“Any advice back to Centrelink is good advice because we can constantly try to improve our services and keep listening to the people, particularly if we are made aware that there is a lack of suitable accommodation in metro Melbourne,” he said.
“The Office of Housing, they’ve got long wait lists … people are getting pushed into more temporary accommodation like boarding houses, rooming houses … which are not the most desirable longer-term solutions.
“So we have to work through those and make sure that from the Centrelink perspective we can work with agencies like the State Housing Authority and work together to highlight some of these issues.”
But Mr Telley said the problem often went further than just the lack of housing.
Factors such as finding work, skills, mental health, family and domestic violence can compound the housing crisis, he said.
